Midday Star-Gazing
by Ebenbild
Summary: The first time Neville met Luna, he's asked not to step on an invisible garden gnome. After that, it doesn't take much imagination for him to believe her when it comes to the idea of star-gazing at midday or any other crazy ideas she can come up with. Could be Canon


**_Disclaimer_** _: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

 ** _Placing:_** _Somewhen after second year._

 _Written for the GTS's Competition 'March Madness.' Exactly 1000 words text. Ebenbild, Hogwarts, Gryffindor._

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sSsSsSsSs

 ** _MIDDAY STAR-GAZING_**

sSs

The first time, Neville met Luna, he was actually just driven by wanderlust and had, because of that, left the usual ventured paths and hallways of the school.

Neville had always been a shy and level-headed boy, never getting in trouble, never disrespectful, never anything but the perfect child. He was a timid boy, with no true friends and an average student who had a lot of trouble in potions, whose wand-work was a bit below average and who had a knack for Herbology. In other words: he was the definition of average.

Then, driven by wanderlust, he met Luna…

"Hello Neville Longbottom," she greeted him when he turned around a corner and stumbled upon the girl inside a tiny garden, a hidden inner courtyard nobody used anymore. "Are you here to star-gaze as well?"

Neville looked up into the bright midday sun, before he looked back at the sunny haired girl with the alabaster skin wearing a pink dress with tiny white flowers on it.

"Isn't it a bit early for that?" He settled on, finally.

The girl just smiled at him, her face lighting up like the moon every night.

Then she reached out to him, still smiling.

"Let me show you," she told him. "Just take care not to step on the garden gnome when you do so. He doesn't particularly like to be stepped on."

Neville looked down on the ground.

There was nothing there – especially no garden gnome.

He frowned and looked up to the girl who still had held out a hand towards him.

"There's no garden gnome," he finally pointed out.

"Oh, it's currently invisible," the girl replied. "It's one of those who like to be invisible."

Neville had never heard about an invisible garden gnome before. He considered it.

"Alright," he finally said. "So how do you know it's there?"

She smiled.

"I smell it," she said.

For a moment, he considered if the girl in the pink dress with the Ravenclaw emblem on it, was crazy, then he shrugged it off and carefully took a step inside the courtyard.

"The next step to the right," she advised him. "Or you might step on the gnome."

Neville nodded and did as he was told.

"Very good," she said. "Now take my hand."

Neville frowned at that a little, but did as he was told, shaking her hand the moment he had taken it.

"I'm Neville Longbottom," he introduced himself even when he knew that she already knew his name. "It's nice to meet you. What's your name?"

"Hmm?" the girl said, looking at him with dreamy eyes. "Oh, I'm Luna. Just Luna today. I'm taking a leave of absence from my last name."

Neville blinked at that confused.

"Oh," he said finally. "Alright."

The girl just nodded, then she led him deeper inside the garden.

"Where are you taking me?" Neville asked the girl confused.

"Investigating," Luna replied as if he should have known that.

Neville frowned.

"Investigating what?" he asked.

Luna smiled at him with dreamy eyes, making him feel like a child being gazed at by a benevolent adult.

"We're investigating how to star-gaze on midday, Neville Longbottom," she explained to him patiently. "What else should we be doing?"

"Er… homework?" Neville suggested.

That stopped the girl and she thought it over.

"Perhaps," she said. "But then, you and I both are done with all our homework for the week, so we definitely don't have to do homework right now."

Neville wondered how she knew that he was done with his homework. Luna just smiled as if she knew what he was thinking.

"Now, come on, Neville Longbottom," she said. "Let's find out how to star-gaze on midday."

With that, she led him deeper and deeper into the garden, until Neville started to wonder how they couldn't have reached the other side of the small courtyard already.

"This garden," he finally said, when he couldn't stand the confusion anymore. "It's magical, isn't it?"

Luna just smiled.

"This garden is anything you want it to be," she said amused, then she pointed up towards the open sky. "You just have to investigate it long enough and you will find what you are looking for."

Neville's gaze followed her finger and his jaw dropped.

There, clearly visible on the midday sky, were the stars.

"How?" He finally managed to ask astonished.

Luna just smiled at him.

"Just because something doesn't seem to be there, doesn't mean that it truly isn't there," she said. "Sometimes you just need another viewpoint to be able to see it."

After that day, Neville often could be found near Luna, watching her, smiling at her or laughing with her. Every Saturday they would go wandering the castle, investigating things.

"Longbottom's going to be driven crazy soon," he could hear others whisper. "He's far too often in Loony Lovegood's company to get out of all that craziness unscathed.

"Looney Lovegood is corrupting Longbottom," others said. "He's already speaking of going star-gazing on midday or sidestepping garden gnomes that aren't even there!"

Neville didn't care what they said.

But he took great pleasure when somebody didn't heed Luna's warning about the garden gnome and was bitten as a result.

Maybe, Neville guessed, Luna was truly driving him crazy without him knowing it – but as long as she laughed with him and investigated the castle with him, he actually didn't mind to be a little crazy. Normally was overrated anyway.

And if he sidestepped invisible garden gnomes, so be it. Sometimes, he even thought that he actually could see their shadow when he sidestepped them.

Now he just had to wonder where his binoculars were. Luna told him that he would need them to see a four-legged Snook-Fiddler. Neville had no idea what a four-legged Snook-Fiddler actually was, but Luna had said that they would search Hogwarts for one, so he was searching for his binoculars.

After all: If you could see the stars clearly on midday, who said that four-legged Snook-Fiddler weren't real as well?

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 _Well, a little odd, but I like it anyway_

 _Ebenbild,_

 _Gryffindor, Hogwarts._

 _Prompts used:_ (word) wanderlust; (song) 'Crazy'–Britney Spears; (creature) garden gnome; (object) pink dress; (colour) alabaster; (word) investigate


End file.
